PHECC Accredited Training Explained

The Pre-Hospital Emergency Care Council (PHECC) is Ireland's statutory regulator for education and training standards in pre-hospital emergency care. It sets the Clinical Practice Guidelines (CPGs) that responder-level courses — from Community First Responder through to Paramedic — are built on, and it accredits the institutions and courses that can issue its qualifications.

PHECC is a different body to the HSA (workplace safety law), the HPRA (medical devices) and the National Ambulance Service (ambulance response and AED registration) — each governs a different part of the picture. See our Irish Workplace First Aid Regulations guide for how they fit together.

Not every first aid course claiming to be "accredited" is PHECC-accredited specifically — some courses are certified by the provider itself, or by a different awarding body. That's not necessarily a problem for the course's own purpose, but it's a different thing to a PHECC qualification, and only PHECC accreditation satisfies the training standard the HSA names for workplace occupational first-aiders (Section 05).

PHECC's Clinical Practice Guidelines (CPGs) set out exactly what a responder at each level is trained and permitted to do. They're periodically updated, and PHECC states plainly that a newer edition takes precedence over older ones.

If you're checking a course or a colleague's certificate, the edition matters — a certificate issued under a much older CPG edition may need to be brought up to date at the next recertification.

See our full First Aid Training Requirements guide for durations, validity and which course fits which need.

For the full legal picture on workplace first-aider requirements, see our Irish Workplace First Aid Regulations guide.

PHECC maintains an official register of recognised institutions and current certificate holders. If you want to confirm a course or a certificate is genuinely PHECC-accredited, PHECC itself is the authority to check with — we don't administer that register and can't confirm PHECC status on a third party's behalf.

Hayes First Aid's own PHECC-accredited courses (FAR, EFR, CFR) are delivered by our training team, in line with the current CPG edition — see Section 04 for which of our courses these are.

What does PHECC stand for and what does it do?

PHECC is the Pre-Hospital Emergency Care Council, Ireland's statutory regulator for pre-hospital emergency care education and training standards, including first aid responder qualifications and Clinical Practice Guidelines.

What does "PHECC-accredited" mean for a training course?

It means the course is delivered under PHECC's Clinical Practice Guidelines by a PHECC Recognised Institution (RI) or Approved Training Institution (ATI), and the certificate issued is a genuine PHECC qualification, not the provider's own certificate.

Which Hayes First Aid courses are PHECC-accredited?

FAR (First Aid Responder), EFR (Emergency First Aid Responder) and CFR (Community First Responder) are PHECC-accredited. EFA (Emergency First Aid) and our online eLearning courses are not.

What's the current edition of the PHECC Clinical Practice Guidelines?

The PHECC Clinical Practice Guidelines 2026 (8th Edition), which PHECC states takes precedence over older versions. The responder-level FAR and EFR guidelines are also the 2026 edition.